Minutes of meeting of 16th January 2010 now available
Minutes of the AOCM Conference held at Trinity College, Bristol
on Saturday 16th January 2010
1) Introductions: from George Kovours, Principal of Trinity College during morning prayers, led by Bruce Clifford (Trinity).
2) Attendance: Rob Parker McGee (Chair), Patrick Eggleston (Treasurer), Catherine Shelley (Secretary), Bruce Clifford (Trinity), Celia Cook (ERMC), Nick Munday (Cuddesdon), Fiona Gibson (Oakhill), James Rosie (Mirfield), James McGowan (Cranmer), Dominic Jones (St Johns, Nottingham), Dinesh Singh (Westcott).
3) Apologies: Tom Holbird (Ridley), Carol Dunk (Diego Brinkley Galanzino (St Stephens), Lindisfarne RTP, Danny Walker (YMC), Sally Jones (Llandaff)
4) Morning Prayer, news from institutions and requests for prayer:
Trinity – for managing growth, recruitment of new staff and balance of academic work and formation
ERMC – for the teaching staff and Principal and for sustainable numbers and funding
St Johns – thanks that leavers have all found curacies; for all with exams and assignment deadlines
Mirfield – thanks that most leavers have found title and prayers for those still searching; thanks for a vibrant community
Cranmer – prayers for David Wilkinson’s sabbatical, guidance for the warden and bursar taking on an additional workload in his absence
Cuddesdon – thanks for the Principal’s vision of diversity in harmony and prayers for the building work
Oakhill – thanks for the new staff who are now settling in; prayers for both staff and students injured through accidents in the bad weather, including a member who has broken his back
Westcott – prayers for Mission, particularly outreach abroad such as the Principal’s recent work in China and Hong Kong and contacts with India and prayers for recruitment both at Westcott and at other institutions
Ridley – prayers for their rep Tom Holbird and family; Tom was absent as wife about to give birth to their first child.
5) Report from Chair and Secretary re meeting with Ministry Division:
Curacies – there has been a flurry of enquiries in the New Year and it appears that problems of shortfall of curacies are beginning to become apparent; it is thought that about 10% of ordinands may not find a curacy – which is around 30-40 people. The shortfall is partly to do with Diocesan quota. Part of the difficulty, in the South East particularly, is finding accommodation in the current housing market. There are also some difficulties about school places for children. Agreed that should argue for leeway, where potential curate is able to do so, to sort out their own housing issues if existence of curacy is threatened by them.
Title website only has about 15 posts on to date – need to encourage DDOs to use the site. Agreed letter to DDOs about AOCM, the website and numbers to go out without the planned AOCM cards. These have not yet arrived as there has been no news re design and placing of order. Agreed Fiona G and Rob to follow this up with TP and get them commissioned via printer who did start of year invitations.
Limits on numbers in training – AOCM has been copied into a letter from Ministry Division about the implications of the Bishops’ Synod decision to cap numbers in training. Some senior clergy are calling for an AOCM response. Concerns were expressed re need to review time limits for starting training post-BAP and starting curacy post-training, given that the cap on training numbers may lead to a backlog of those waiting for places to start training. In addition, if numbers are being capped to ease pressure re curacies then there should be some guarantee of a curacy at the end of the process – the greater planning re numbers should mean that there can be greater planning re availability of curacy etc. Caps will be placed on both residential and non-residential training. Also need to address implications for sustainability of institutions and courses if funding from student quota is insufficient to meet costs. Some fears expressed re diversity of training institutions if funding issues threaten survival of smaller institutions with more particular tradition. Agreed that these concerns should also be included in the letter to DDOs but not appropriate to write to Bishops, as our point of contact as an organisation is DDOs not Bishops. However, could inform members so that they can take it up with their Bishop or DDO if they wish.
Website – updates in PDF form have not happened - relevant people need to liaise. To be followed up. Agreed that comment on the site about individual colleges (as had been proposed by a previous Chair) was inappropriate – AOCM’s role is information only and referral on to college’s own website. Need to make clear that financial information has been checked and updated with Ministry Division. There is to be a link to the AOCM site added to the Church of England site – another aspect of Ministry Division’s wish to strengthen links. There was discussion of adding an AOCM link to Facebook but agreed that this was not appropriate at this stage because of the need for monitoring.
Website costs - £10 per month has now been requested by the person who set up the site – not earlier requested! Agreed that site hosting fee should be paid and consider some investment of monies saved on handbook in getting site tidied up and put into a format that is easy to manage.
Pensions – welcomed the proposals to go to Synod in February for removing pension restrictions for pre-existing conditions in favour of a system that assesses medical pension on situation at relevant time ie when have to finish work.
Funding – Ministry Division keen to see proposals for dealing with cases not yet covered by the guidelines eg single students, single students with adult dependents eg university age children. Also need to consider interface of benefits with funding. Funding requests from sending parishes – apparently this is OK for those from churches which do not pay Church of England quota eg Diocese of Europe.
1) Treasurer’s report and Accounts 2008-2009 – accounts agreed (Proposed by Celia Cook, seconded by Nick Munday) and taken by Fiona to be signed off by the independent examiner. The deficit was generated by handbook costs and some costs incurred by the abortive conference planned in Birmingham last April. In addition, £700 of subscriptions had not been collected by the previous treasurer; PE has now updated the full list of courses as well as institutions and subs for this year are mostly collected from Colleges. Some are still outstanding as some part time students attending residential institutions have been billed at wrong place and others are awaiting CR approval.
Options for future management of resources were discussed. Minimum unavoidable expenditure includes travel costs to conferences, refreshments at conferences, website design, hosting and maintenance, travel costs for officers meetings with Ministry Division. The total is about £800 per year. Agreed, after further discussion, that decision to hold meetings centrally to reduce travel and overnight accommodation costs, would be confirmed. A suggestion was to charge not per ordinand, which means larger institutions pay higher bills and courses do not pay as non-residential ordinands get no funding unlike residential students, who get CR and equivalent costs in the Min Div grant. Agreed that a flat rate fee, per institution and course, at a lower rate eg £50, with institutions paying their own reps’ costs, might encourage greater ownership and more manageable subscriptions that relate to institution not ordinand. Needs further canvassing in institutions and with Ministry Division – who value AOCM role. Decision will need to be taken at Autumn meeting 2010, so that bills for next year’s subs can be prepared on an appropriate basis.
2) Venues and Dates – Agreed to change date of next meeting – subject to St Stephens being able to accommodate us, to 24th April, as some people are still mid-vacation on 17th April, the date originally proposed. Will plan following year’s meetings and venues at the April meeting. CS to check that new date for meeting is OK. Agreed that if institutions could be encouraged to elect reps at same time of year eg end of Lent term, to start in April, would be easier for purposes of consistency.
3) Election of new officers – A number of people present were happy to consider posts – particularly Chair and Secretary; however, wanted time to think about standing and where appropriate, consult spouses etc. Agreed that nominations would be sought from wider membership, with deadline of end of January and then an election held by email. This is a novel development. A handover meeting from old to new officers would be held alongside a meeting with Ministry Division, to introduce new officers to Min Div. CS to co-ordinate.
4) The meeting closed with the Grace and thanks to Bruce for his organisation and Trinity’s welcome.